Ray Winstone says there is too much emphasis on violence and drugs in modern television drama.

The actor has made a career out of playing the hard man, but he seems to have softened for his latest role in Sky1's TV adaptation of the classic children's novel Moonfleet.

The two-part adaptation of John Meade Falkner's 19th Century novel airs this weekend and is a tale of smuggling and adventure.

It sees Winstone's character, Elzevir, lead a band of smugglers in the search for a lost diamond.

"It's about honour and about morals, and a young man trying to find his way in the world," he told Sky News.

Winstone is best known for playing violent characters in films such as Scum

"In a way, we don't really write stories about that anymore. Our stories centre on - and I've done enough of them to know - wives being battered and drug dealers in the States.

"But these stories are about honour, about a moral and about a young man coming out of puberty and adolescence and growing up and what the important things in life are."

Winstone, who is best known for playing violent characters in films such as Scum and The Departed, is performing something of a U-turn by appearing in family-friendly Christmas television, but he says the small screen holds just as much magic as the silver screen.

"You are making films for TV. There used to be a terrible snobbery between making films and making TV. It used to be that once you had been in TV you couldn't go back to films.

"But Al Pacino, being the great star he is, went and done it, and it opened the floodgates from there and that's great for us. But I think it's also great for an audience because we need some drama. We're not getting that on TV enough."

Moonfleet also stars Omid Djalili, Ben Chaplin, Martin Trenaman and Aneurin Barnard. and is on Sky1 HD on Saturday December 28 at 8pm.